Leaving Christianity gave me the fairy-tale ending I always wanted / Divorce and pre-marital sex destroyed my relationship with Christianity by T. Sheehan

Leaving Christianity gave me the fairy-tale ending I always wanted / Divorce and pre-marital sex destroyed my relationship with Christianity by T. Sheehan

Even though the details of my life and situation are different, I sure did relate to this lady’s story.

My eye brow did raise at one or two points of this essay, such as her claim that people at her church encouraged her to get an abortion when she became pregnant out of wedlock, and from the way she discusses her church, they sound pretty conservative and legalistic.

Perhaps she is telling the truth and that really did happen, it’s just that most conservative Christians are pro-life, not pro-choice, so I am having a hard time picturing any of them advising a pregnant woman to get an abortion.

With possibly a few wacko Protestant church exceptions, (Link): like this one, where the church’s preacher allegedly encouraged the women members to get abortions. But then, of course, there is information such as this: (Link): 2015 Poll: 70% of American Women Who Have Abortions Identify As Christian

By and large, though, most churches are pro-life, not pro-choice.

At one point in this essay, Sheehan says that although she and her male friend were not having sex, that due to being constantly suspected and accused of having sex by Christians at her church, is actually what in large measure drove her and her boyfriend to become sexually active with one another.

Major irony there. Or maybe not…

As I have said time and again at my blog, most Christians, just like secular culture, just blindly assumes that celibacy is impossible for anyone over the age of 25 or so, and that it is impossible for men and women to be platonic friends.

It is entirely possible for men and women to remain friends, and it is entirely possible for an adult to stay celibate for months or years at a time.

I have also explained before, in previous posts, that one reason there is so much fornication among Christian singles is precisely because most Christians have such low expectations: they expect that single adults will, or have, had sex outside of marriage. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy quite often.

The couple discussed in this post were expected, assumed to be, and suspected by their fellow congregants of sleeping together; this couple got tired of being falsely accused, so they figured, well, we might as well have sex, since everyone is already assuming we are and harassing us over it.

I also notice that one reason this woman’s husband, who was a Christian at one time, but is now an atheist or agnostic, began losing his faith over how miserably his grief (over the death of his father) was mishandled by Christians.

Oh yes, I relate: after my family member’s passing a few years ago, rather than receiving love, empathy, and encouragement from Christians in my family or churches I went to, I instead received judgment, criticism, platitudes, or indifference. This in turn is one of several things that caused me to partially leave the Christian faith.

One of a few things that caused Sheehan to leave the faith is over how one church she attended mishandled her abusive marriage – her priest told her to stay with the abusive husband.

This advice is also usually given in Baptist or Protestant situations. Christians often put keeping an (abusive) marriage before the welfare of the two persons who comprise the marriage.

Abused wives are usually instructed to stay with the abusive spouse and submit to the abuser more, or just pray about things. None of this resolves the situation but actually prolongs it.

I am not surprised in light of all the insensitive treatment that she and her husband endured at the hands of other believers, that they both developed major doubts about Christianity and walked away from it.

There were a few supportive comments to the woman who wrote this, in the comments area under the essay, but there were also a lot of hateful, judgmental, or naive posts left to her by Christians.

There were also a few annoying posts by atheists who were just there to say “all religion is idiotic, there is no God” to any of the well-meaning, yet naive Christians who were telling her to hold on to the faith, in spite of the Christians who had been mean to her at her prior churches.

Honestly, I wish those types of atheists would refrain from posting under articles like this one by Sheehan. I find their opportunistic, anti-theism drivel and rants to be about as bad as the nasty posts by the Christians who scolded Sheehan for leaving Christianity.

(Link): Leaving Christianity gave me the fairy-tale ending I always wanted 

• Divorce and pre-marital sex destroyed my relationship with Christianity by T. Sheehan

• My family has always been part of the Catholic Church, including being actively involved in fighting for those beliefs in Ireland and France through the centuries. It is all I knew and I never imagined a life without it. Even in today’s permissive society, divorce is still a huge don’t in the Catholic Church.

  When my priest advised me to stay in an abusive marriage rather than lose access to the Catholic religion, I stayed — until my husband left me for one of the many women he had been seeing.

  I went back to my priest for help but instead found myself without a church.

  Confused and directionless, I ended up seeking help at a Word of Faith Christian Church in Texas.

  Although the church and I both believed in Jesus, the similarities ended there. Everything was so different from what I had grown up with, it made the transition very difficult.

  They kept trying to break down my identity by using scripture to suggest that everything about me, from Catholicism to my Irish culture, was evil and against God. It was like going through spiritual boot camp as they attempted to rebuild me into a person that could gain access to heaven.

  During my time there, I met my current husband. He was also having a tough time as his father had died suddenly the year before, causing him to question the church he had been raised in and even the existence of God due to how they handled his grief.

  We became really good friends who spent hours talking as we each struggled with our sheltered worlds collapsing around us, no matter how hard we tried to fight to keep the walls intact.

  The damage in our lives, caused by blind devotion to a religion, forced us to question all the truths we had been raised to believe.

No Man’s Land – Part 2 – On Post Evangelicals or Ex Christians or Liberal Christians Ignorantly Hopping Aboard Belief Sets They Once Rejected

No Man’s Land – Part 2 – On Post Evangelicals or Ex Christians or Liberal Christians Ignorantly Hopping Aboard Belief Sets They Once Rejected

✹ What follows is actually the heart of my “No Man’s Land” view. This is what prompted me to write it: ✹

✹ TAKING THE OPPOSITE POSITION OF WHAT YOU USED TO BELIEVE BUT NOW HATE – DUE TO EMOTIONAL REASONS OR A KNEE JERK RESPONSE OR FROM SPITE – IS JUST AS WRONG AND MISTAKEN ✹

As to the forums and blogs by ex Christians, liberal Christians, self identifying post-evangelicals, or those still Christian who expose spiritual abuse…

I notice a number of the regular visitors to these sites – the ones who left an abusive or legalistic church or denomination – simply now operate in the reverse in their thinking, which is, IMO, just as bad or wrong as the thinking they are leaving.

There are different types of ex-Christians one must take into consideration when discussing this topic, so I shall present some sketches of them first.

IFBs (Independent Fundamentalist Baptists)

For example, there are ex IFBs (Independent Fundamentalist Baptists).

IFB preachers and churches are ridiculously legalistic. They make up rules that are not in the Bible, or twist or exaggerate the rules already there to the point those rules then become unbiblical.

IFBs are the contemporary, American versions of the Bible’s Pharisees: nit picky, anal retentive, legalists who make up man-made rules but insist they are “biblical” and thus binding on all believers.

IFBs concoct man-made traditions they expect all IFB members to adhere to, just like the Roman Catholic hierarchy does towards Roman Catholic members.

For example, IFB churches are legalistic about secular entertainment and clothing and physical appearance.

IFB churches teach their congregations that women should not wear pants but only skirts. And the skirts should be only so many inches above or below the knee.

According to IFBs, men should not have hair that touches the back shirt collar – not a mullet to be found in IFB, which may be a good thing. Secular music and television is sinful and should always be avoided.

IFBs have other legalistic rules for just about every aspect of life.

IFBs are vehemently anti-Roman Catholicism as well as anti-Calvinism.

No Man’s Land – Between Agnosticism and Christianity / Also: It’s Emotional Not Intellectual (Part 1)

No Man’s Land – Between Agnosticism and Christianity / Also: It’s Emotional Not Intellectual (PART 1)

This will be a series of posts where my thoughts wander in and out and all over, and it rambles, but there is a point or two behind it.

Since I’ve been in a faith crisis the last couple of years, somewhere between being an agnostic and a Christian, I have noticed I don’t fit in anywhere. I reside in No Man’s Land.

(Even before then, when I was a total, committed Christian, and politically, I was, and am, right wing, I still didn’t fit in at most blogs and forums, including political ones, and including ones for right wingers!

I tend to be one of those personalities who annoys or angers everyone, even those on “my side” of an issue, except a small number of people, who are either on my side of a topic or not, who “get me” or who appreciate where I’m coming from – again, this is true for even the ones who disagree with me on whatever topic we are discussing.)

I am in this really weird place now, where I am critical of some aspects of conservative Christianity, and see where conservative Christians get some doctrines and other things wrong, but, too, I am not fully on board with militant atheism (I find the New Atheists to be arrogant, vile, hateful and rude), and I don’t even care for lukewarm atheism.

Nor am I in the camp of anything and all things liberal Christianity, except where I think they get the occasional point correct (such as their rejection of gender complementarianism).

Since drifting away from the Christian faith more the last few years, I more often began frequenting forums or blogs for and by atheists, ones by liberal Christians, ones by ex Christians, or by Christians who were abused by a former church who remain Christian but who dropped out of Church, or who now are on a crusade to expose abuse by preachers or the absurdity and harm of current evangelical gimmicks.

THE MILITANT ATHEISTS

A clarification: when I say I have been visiting atheist forums and blogs more often, I am very picky about which ones I regularly visit.

I do not like the frothing- at- the- mouth, extremely bitter, biased- against- Christians- type atheistic communities.

The bitter atheist groups sound like a bunch of irrational, hate-filled loons who reject Christianity for emotional reasons, but who lie to others and themselves and say, “Oh no, it’s purely intellectual.”

But their unrelenting, insane amount of hatred at any and all things God and Christian, is just a total turn-off to me, so I try to avoid such sites.

These angry, always-ranting atheists are really nothing more than Fundamentalist Atheists or Taliban Atheists. They are just as dogmatic about their atheism as Muslims are in their Wasabi Islam or Baptists are in their Neo Fundamentalism.

Really, those types of atheists are just as bad as the religious groups they claim they hate, but they don’t seem to spot that they are. It’s ironic – and it’s hard to stomach the day in, day out anger and hatred, so I try to avoid their sites.

HYPOCRITICAL CHRISTIANS VS NON HYPOCRITICAL CHRISTIANS

Also, you have to be honest with yourself, which I do not find militant atheists to be, by and large: not every single Christian is a hypocrite, jerk, idiot, dullard, or complete jackhole.

I say this as someone who is very fed up with Christianity and Christian persons myself these days.

But your average militant atheist will never admit that some Christians are in fact okay and not being hypocrites.

I have known and met a few Christians who were sincerely trying to live the Christian faith out, such as my mother, who is now deceased, and her mother before her (my grandmother).

I’ve met a few honest, sincere Christians online who do help people and show compassion to the wounded.

So it’s not fair to completely dismiss the entirety of Christians and their faith or treat them all like jerks because some are liars, mean, or abusive.

Which is not easy for me personally, because at the same time, I do keep noticing that a lot of self-professing believers do NOT live out what the Bible says.

Many self professing Christians today, for example, do not protect victims, such as young church members who have been sexually molested by preachers.

Nor do many church goers today hold accountable preachers who bilk their church goers out of millions to buy big mansions and jets.

These idiots, these lemmings, actually defend their greedy pastors online, which I’ve written about here: (Link): Your Preacher Sucks – and People Have a Right To Say So And Explain Why.

Then you have a conservative or evangelical culture, which claims to care deeply that people preserve sex until marriage, but if you actually find yourself 40 years of age and still single – and therefore still a virgin, such as myself – these same churches and Christians do not offer you any support.

You either go ignored, or preachers and talking heads of such groups “run down” and insult celibacy as well as older, celibate adults. Churches treat single (and especially celibate) adults as though they are flawed, lepers, weirdos, or losers.

Churches wrongly counsel abused wives to return to their spouses – this is particularly true, again, of churches or Christian groups who buy into “biblical womanhood” (aka “gender complementariansm”) or “patriarchy.”

Churches and average Christians also remain ignorant or callous about matters pertaining to mental health issues, from P.T.S.D. to depression and anxiety attacks.

Some Christians wrongly and insensitively teach that “real Christians” can never get depression or other mental health maladies.

Or, some Christians believe and teach that prayer, faith, service to the poor, or Bible reading alone can cure one of mental illness.

Still other Christians (or the same type) will shame and guilt suffering Christians for using anti-depressant medications, or for seeing secular or Christian psychiatrists and therapists (see this link for more, “Over 50 Percent of Christians Believe Prayer, Bible Reading Alone Can Cure Mental Illness (article) – In Other Words Half of Christians are Ignorant Idiots Regarding Mental Illness”).

Yet other Christians are incompetent at, or unwilling, to provide more ordinary, “every day,” run- of- the- mill comfort to other Christians who are hurting, such as a Christian who is stressed out over a job loss, someone who is in mourning for a deceased loved one, etc.

Christians are dropping the ball in numerous ways.

And this failure, this huge failure, causes life long Christians like me to look long and hard at the faith and wonder if it’s true at all.

It causes even someone such as myself to ask if the faith is true, because

• it doesn’t appear to be working,
• it doesn’t make a difference in people’s life who profess it,
• most who claim to follow Christ don’t actually do what he taught,
• and some Christians refuse to hold Christians caught in bald faced sin accountable but excuse them for the sin,

~ and it makes you wonder “what is the point, then.”

I find this discrepancy between confessed belief and actual practice shocking, because I myself sincerely tried living out the faith since childhood.

Also, my Christian mother was a role model for me, and she genuinely, consistently lived out and by biblical teachings, including getting up off her ass and actually HELPING people (giving them money if they were in a bind, cleaning their homes for them when they were sick, listening to them cry and rant about their problems for hours without judging them or interrupting them, etc).

I am not seeing most other Christians do any of this. They say they believe in those things but then they do not do them.

BLOGS AND FORUMS FOR SPIRITUALLY ABUSED OR THOSE HURT BY CHURCHES

Before I actually get into this topic (which I discuss more in Posts 2 and 3), here is some background leading up to it.

As far as the sites I have visited by liberal Christians, ex Christians, atheists, as well as sites by Christians for the spiritually abused:

By and large, these have been wonderful, supportive sites and groups to visit (the ones run by Christians for hurting Christians).

I have noticed, though, that there are problems even within these types of communities, and I don’t entirely fit in at them, either.

Pat Robertson Contradicts Himself On Healing and God’s Will

Pat Robertson Contradicts Himself On Healing and God’s Will

On today’s (Oct 10, 2013) Christian program “700 Club,” during their “Bring it on” show segment ((Link): Bring It On), host Pat Robertson fielded a question from a viewer who wants to know why Robertson’s show never mentions unanswered prayer, that some people pray for healing but never get healed.

This person said she thinks his show should periodically mention that not all who pray for healing get a healing, or whatever they are praying for – and I totally agree with her.

(I do not yet see this particular program on 700 Club’s website or else I would link to it.)

Anyway, Robertson’s reply to that viewer warbled all over the place.

Robertson brought up that saying “if it be in your will God” at the end of a prayer for healing is a “faith killer.”

I have to agree with the person who e-mailed with the question.

If anything, it is a “faith killer” that it is the Christian TV show, or Word of Faith, propensity to emphasize only successes in answer to prayer, to discuss only healings, and never to acknowledge times when God does NOT answer prayer, when God does NOT heal someone, and some die from, or live an entire life with, a disease.

It is a FACT that God does not answer all your prayers the way you want or hope, and it doesn’t matter how good you are, how godly, how much faith you have, and so on.

God’s answer is sometimes just a flat out “No.” But Word of Faith Christians, and other types, do not like to deal with this fact.

It’s actually very depressing if you are someone suffering from depression, cancer, or some other situation, and although you pray your heart out to God for months or years, God does not heal you, nor does He answer you, and yet, every time you tune in to shows like 700 Club, every single damn testimony on that show is by someone who says, “Two seconds after I prayed, God healed me, praise Jesus.”

You start to wonder why God is healing all these other people within two seconds of their prayer and not healing YOU, and you’ve been praying about your situation for YEARS – and you have even jumped through all the hoops to get your prayer answered that Christians say you are to jump through, such as repenting of all your sin, tithing regularly, reading your Bible daily, and whatever else.

Anyway, after Robertson made these comments about saying that using the phrase “if it be in your will” in prayer is a ‘faith killer,’ his show ran a story about a woman who got AIDS, but after she prayed to God for healing, she was healed of the disease.

This woman’s adult son was interviewed, and he said when he got news that his mother had AIDS, that he said to God, “Why my mom, God? Please heal her if it be in your will.”

Then, at the end of the show, after praying for the audience, Robertson turns to the camera and says, “We will be back with more 700 Club episodes God willing.”

Did you catch that? Within 15 minutes of telling people it is wrong to think or say “if it be in God’s will” he has two spots on his show of people using that very phrase – himself and the son of a woman who was healed of AIDS.

Even Jesus said (from Luke 22), “Father, if it is your will, take this cup [of suffering] away from me.” There is also a Bible passage where Paul says it is arrogant NOT to say or think in terms of “if it be in thy will” because we do NOT know what the future holds, only God does.

Robertson also contradicted his son, Gordon Robertson. Whenever Gordon hosts the show, he tells people that while people may not get a healing in this life, that everyone gets a healing in the afterlife / heaven.

Robertson said something during the show today when answering the viewer e-mail about how he feels it is a ‘cop out’ for Christians to think or teach that “not everyone gets healed in this life time but all get healed in Heaven.”

Well, that is the very concept his own son teaches when his son hosts that show. Pat Robertson is saying his own son Gordon “cops out” and gives lame answers to viewers of that very show.

If memory serves me, Jesus Christ did NOT heal everyone who came to him, as Robertson claimed. There is an incident or two when the Bible says Jesus was being followed by crowds (of sick people who wanted healing or what not), but he could not take it anymore and would leave the crowds to go off by Himself.

Also, and if memory serves, a few of the folks Jesus healed did not even ASK the man for healing, they were just sitting there minding their own business and Jesus walked by and offered to heal them of their blindness, paralyzed body part, or what ever – they did not ASK to be healed, Jesus just offered to do it. This factoid also does not square with Word of Faith teaching that you MUST pray and have ‘X’ amount of faith, or else God will not heal you.

Anyway, Christian shows need to run more testimonies by devout believers who despite a life time of prayers, were NOT healed or helped. It’s somewhat dishonest and a misrepresentation of Christian faith and life to only air stories of instant healing, when so many of us know good Christian people who prayed and prayed and still died.

Pat Robertson should have been put out to pasture years ago. He gives incorrect, unbiblical, insensitive, or hypocritical advice.

I notice his former co-host Kristi Watts has not been on that show since around June or July 2013, and nobody has mentioned her absence since then. Except someone on another site claims that,

I just read that on June 25th Gordan [sic] Robertson announced that Kristi Watts was leaving to pursue her own Ministry. Hope this helps
————-
[from the 700 Club Facebook page (LINK)]

Hello All:

“Thank you for your inquiry. CBN has announced the departure of Kristi Watts. Kristi is leaving the network in order to pursue other ministry opportunities.

Gordon Robertson, chief executive officer of CBN, made the announcement on June 12, 2013.

Gordon shared, “Kristi Watts has brought much joy and inspiration to the CBN family. While we will miss her, Kristi has always had a heart for ministry and we all wish her much success as she moves into this exciting new chapter.” Please join us in praying for God’s blessings on Kristi and her ministry. May God richly bless you.”

CBN.COM ADMIN.

Good page on the topic on is it okay to use the phrase “if it be in your will” when praying to God (on another site):
(Link): Is it Okay to Pray, “If it Be Your Will, Lord?”

Excerpt:

So, when we don’t know God’ will, there is nothing wrong with praying, “If it be your will, Lord.” Prayer is not about phrasing everything perfectly, or using the correct formula in the exact right way. Prayer is about communicating with God from our hearts, in an honest, loving relationship. Sometimes we get too concerned about technique and forget that God knows our hearts and understands our human imperfections.

—————-
Related this blog:

(Link): On Prayer and Christ’s Comment to Grant You Anything You Ask in His Name

(Link): Blaming the Christian for His or Her Own Problem or Unanswered Prayer / Christian Codependency

(Link): Pat Robertson: (basically): Pre Marital Sex is Okay (or to be totally expected) Because People are “Sexual Beings”

(Link): Christian TV Show Host Pat Robertson is Fine With Trandgenderism

(Link): Atlanta Baptist Church Missing Person Project Missing the Unmarried – Charles Stanley on Singleness – Unanswered Prayer

(Link): “He’s Got Muscles” – Pat Robertson Weirdness (Discussing Tebow’s Sexiness)

(Link): Advocate of Family Values Doesn’t Uphold Family Values | Stop Asking Pat Robertson for Advice America!

(Link): Pat Robertson to married woman: All men are cheaters and sex crazed horn dogs, but that’s okay because they’re men

(Link): Pat Robertson Expects Men to Commit Sexual Sin (and it’s not the first time)

(Link): Creepy, Creepy and Sexist Pat Robertson

(Link): Is Pat Robertson of The 700 Club Show some kind of secret perv? He’s Creepy

(Link): Robertson Defends His Horrible Advice to Married Woman

Bay-Bees – Have them, have lots of them and NOW, no matter what say some Christians

Bay-Bees – Have them, have lots of them and NOW, no matter what!, say some Christians Please see Part 2 of This Post

I was watching Pat Robertson today – by the way, I don’t always mean to single this guy out. A lot of his views about marriage, gender roles, babies, and other issues are similar to those of other male preachers and Christian talking heads.

Sooo. On a previous broadcast, Pat Robertson advised his Christian viewers to “out breed” their “opponents” (by which he meant Muslims, but I also suspect he was thinking of atheists, liberals, and other groups). You can read this post here at this blog for more about that.

Based on figures I have seen in books and blogs, currently about 50% of the American population is unmarried – this is also true of conservative Christians, 50% are unmarried. This includes never married, divorced, widowed.

It seems strange to me that Robertson and other Christian spokespersons and preachers keep insisting that Christians have more kids. About 20% of married couples do not have children, and who knows why that is. Maybe they have infertility issues, don’t want any, or can’t afford one.

When about 50% of American Christians are single, you’re asking the other 50% to crank out a lot of kids, and some of those 50% might be people over 40, 50, or 60 and don’t have the physical ability, energy, or health to keep up with a kid.

Your 50% of unmarried people technically are not supposed to be having sex. I know it’s popular to question this in some quarters – some Christians on other blogs actually argue that the Bible, and God, are fine and hunky-dory with fornication (sexual activity outside of marriage).

But no, God is not hunky-dory and okay with fornication- that fact is alluded to in many verses. In the Old Testament days, if a woman was not a virgin on her wedding night, she was to be stoned to death, if I recall correctly. She had to bring proof to the priests, via stained bridal sheets (sorry to be a bit crass, but it’s in the Scriptures), that she was a virgin on her wedding night, should her new husband claim she was not.

Obviously, since Christ, God has dropped the “stone her to death” routine, or whatever the penalty was at the time, but the fact that God called for a severe penalty at some point in history for fornication should be a huge CLUE that He is not “okay” with sex outside of marriage – HELLO.

I just find it really insulting, stupid, or unrealistic that some conservative Christians are bemoaning and fretting the decline of child birth among Christians. I can’t quite articulate it.

Maybe it’s because I’m over 40 years old and have never been married but wanted to be married that I find this annoying – that, and I also don’t think it’s anyone’s place to tell married couples when or how to have a baby. The Bible does not COMMAND all married couples to breed like rabbits, the “be fruitful” comment aside – I have never understood that “be fruitful” comment to be an iron-clad COMMANDMENT to all married couples forever, that they MUST follow or be damned by God.

These weenie TV preachers are asking Christian women to pop out more babies. I couldn’t pop out more kids if I wanted to, unless I went against biblical teachings about fornication and had a kid out of wedlock. Is that what the Pat Robertsons of the nation really want?

TBN Christian Network – Your All-Purpose Bash TBN Thread!

I’ve noticed the few times I’ve left posts about specific complaints or observations about TBN, I’ll get visitors who leave generic “I hate TBN” type of comments, and that’s not what I’m hoping to see in the comments.

I don’t completely agree with all teachings on TBN, so I’m sympathetic, but how about not using any and every post of mine that makes a reference to TBN an excuse to just bash TBN in general?

Two posts before this one, for example, I made a post today noting that TBN keeps airing Paul Crouch Sr. telling and re-telling how he founded TBN, and how repetitive and annoying this TBN history lesson is. Instead of agreeing with that specific point, one visitor used that post to bash TBN in general terms.

I propose if you are a TBN-hater and want to rant and rave about how they push the “Wealth and Health Gospel” and how Jan Crouch’s pink hair is funny looking, and so on and so forth, that you use this particular blog post for that, instead of using each and every post I make mentioning TBN to gripe in general terms about TBN.

Believe me, I’m sympathetic to much of your disdain for TBN, but that doesn’t mean I want every single post I make about them on my blog to turn into an all- purpose ‘I sure do hate TBN, those Word of Faith heretics!’ type rant fest. If I make a post with a SPECIFIC gripe about TBN, please address that specific point, instead of telling me “they’re frauds, greedy, and Word of Faithers,” since I already know all that and agree with most of it.

Bayless Conley and Depression – Sorry, dude, but depression can’t be cured by will power & sometimes not even by faith

I’m sure Bayless Conley, a pastor who has a weekly TV show, means well. (I’ve written about him once before at this blog).

However, in today’s show, Conley was essentially making it sound as though if one wants to conquer clinical depression, one can do it by force of will, by thinking happy, sunny thoughts, and by having enough faith.

I’m not sure how much of a WoFer – Word of Faith (Wealth and Health / Prosperity Gospel) preacher this Conley guy is, if at all, but I am aware that many other WoFers have warped ideas about faith, healing, and human suffering.

One TBN guest who gets it right: Dr Billy Ingram of L.A.

(Please click the “more” link to read the entire post)

Dr. Billy Ingram, a guy I’ve never heard of before, was a guest on a TBN program this evening, and he went on an anti-prosperity rant (he’s against prosperity as taught by the con artists and greedy rats one typically sees on TBN).

If I understood correctly, Ingram is a pastor at a church in Los Angeles, but spends the rest of his time working as a photographer.

Ingram said that too many people in the church today who are preaching and listening to the prosperity message are too greedy, and he mentioned that one word frequently translated in our Bibles as “prosperity” is not always referring to financial prosperity.

Ingram made an excellent point when he said (paraphrasing),

“Why is it that in the churches where the pastors preach the prosperity gospel that the pastors and the other ‘top guys’ in the churches are the only ones driving the expensive cars? If the prosperity message they teach is true, shouldn’t more people in their churches also be driving the fancy cars?”

Taking the Lord’s Name in Vain – on ‘Christian’ TV Shows

(Please click the “more” link to read the entire post)

I cringe every time I hear Christian hosts use the name Jesus as though it’s an exclamation, because it sounds dangerously close to taking His name in vain.

“Pastor” Rod Parsley, whose show airs on TBN, is perhaps most guilty of this.

If you’ve read my previous post on Parsley, you know I don’t even think that man is a Christian.

I do try to avoid his show, but every so often, while channel surfing, I pause to watch a moment or two. It’s kind of like the proverbial train wreck you can’t help but stare at as you go by.

About anytime I do watch, even for a moment, Parsley frequently interjects the name of Jesus. That is, Jesus with an exclamation point at the end.

Cannot Stand Rod Parsley – Greedy Pastor

Rod Parsley is one of the “Prosperity Gospel” frauds on TBN, and he has his own daily television show.

I was channel surfing today and watched a little of his show “Breakthrough.”

The topic of the program was fear.

The end of the show wound up being an appeal for money.